Georgia's Foreign Minister: EU failed to label 2008 war Russian aggression

At a hearing of the Georgian Parliament’s Temporary Investigative Commission, Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili on Wednesday testified regarding actions by certain politicians between 2012 and 2025 that allegedly harmed Georgia’s foreign policy objectives.

During her remarks, Botchorishvili recalled the international narrative surrounding the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, stating that Europe initially framed the conflict as an “internal issue” rather than recognising it as Russian aggression.

“In 2008, no one could make Europe acknowledge that this was Russian aggression against Georgia. It was packaged as a domestic conflict - and that terminology is still being used by European institutions today”, she noted.

“We spent a lot of effort to ensure that the legal assessment was correct, and thank you, too. As the Minister of Justice, you really spared no effort to legally give this its proper name, when in 2008, during the hot war phase, it was not possible for the then government to correctly assess what was happening in Georgia at that time”, Botchorishvili told Thea Tsulukiani, the Chair of the Parliament’s Temporary Investigative Commission.

Botchorishvili emphasised that Georgia was the last among the Eastern Partnership countries to begin visa liberalization dialogue with the EU in 2012. By that time, Moldova had already made significant progress, and Ukraine had already begun its dialogue. She attributed Georgia’s delay to both the lingering effects of the 2008 war and unresolved issues, particularly regarding human rights.